The God's Shrine, Top of the Giant Jack.
High above the clouds of Upper Yard, a man with a bare chest, unnaturally long earlobes, and four taiko drums strapped to a ring on his back lay lazily on a silk-draped couch. He took a careless bite of a bright red apple, the crunch echoing in the silent temple.
"Ye-hahahaha... this is a twist I didn't see coming."
Enel chewed slowly, his eyes—heavy with arrogance and the profound boredom of a self-proclaimed deity—narrowing slightly.
On this sky island, his Mantra was absolute. When combined with the electromagnetic waves of his Goro Goro no Mi (Rumble-Rumble Fruit), his perception spanned every inch of the Vearth. He could hear the frantic breathing of the Shandia, the prayers of the citizens on Angel Island, and even the rhythmic thrum of every heartbeat in the forest.
In less than an hour, he had felt the "voices" of his subordinates flicker and vanish. Shura, master of the Ordeal of String, and Gedatsu, master of the Ordeal of Swamp, had been snuffed out like candles in a gale. Even the "War Demon" Wyper, that persistent fly, was now a fading, dying spark.
"A few bugs from the Blue Sea are ruining my game."
Enel sat up, tossing the apple core into the abyss below the shrine. He could feel four distinct, monstrous auras wandering his woods. They weren't hiding; they were moving like apex predators through a sheepfold, crushing his "trials" with casual, insulting ease.
"Whatever. Those priests were just toys to kill the time." Enel stood, blue static dancing along his gold-ringed fingers. A mask of cruel coldness settled on his face. "Since the bugs are so energetic, as the omnipotent God of this world, I must bestow upon them a little... despair."
He pointed a single index finger toward the heavy Cumulorebus clouds above. A violent surge of high-voltage current shot from his nail, instantly ionizing the atmosphere and triggering a chain reaction in the sky.
"Feel the wrath of God, Blue Sea dwellers."
Deep within the Ruins of Shandora.
Ace walked alone along a weathered stone plaza. Broken pillars and collapsed carvings of winged warriors surrounded him—relics of a Golden City that had held its secrets for four hundred years.
He wasn't worried about the others. Carina was a ghost in the machine with her bird-radar, and Sabo and Jeno were more than capable of handling the local talent. His focus was solely on the "God" at the top of the vine.
Suddenly, Ace stopped.
The air grew heavy with the acrid, metallic scent of ozone. The grass at his feet began to stand on end, drawn upward by an intense static charge. The space around him hummed with manic electrostatic particles.
Ace looked up. Above the canopy, a pitch-black thundercloud had materialized out of nowhere. Inside the mass, blue lightning coiled and compressed with a sickening, high-pitched whine.
"So, you found me?" Ace's voice was level, his black pupils fixed on the brewing storm.
There was no warning. No time for a normal human to blink.
BOOM!
A cylindrical pillar of lightning, over ten meters wide, tore through the sky like the Sword of Damocles. It struck with an eardrum-shattering shriek, aimed directly at Ace's crown.
"EL THOR!!" (Judgment of God)
The blinding white light swallowed the ruins, vaporizing the moss and stone in an instant of pure, high-voltage destruction.
Yet, in the face of this celestial fury, Ace didn't flinch. He lowered his center of gravity and clenched his right fist. A sheath of Armament Haki, black and polished as obsidian, coated his arm. But the Haki didn't sit still; it began to flow and ripple, compressing forward into a dense, invisible shell.
Ace thrust his fist upward into the white heart of the lightning—no technique, just pure, concentrated dominance.
"RYUO: SKY BREAKER!"
The Haki and the lightning collided in mid-air. Even without his Devil Fruit, Ace's high-level Haki created an indestructible vacuum barrier. The blue thunder struck the barrier and emitted a high-pitched, crystalline sound—like a mountain of glass shattering.
Then, under the sheer force of Ace's punch, the ten-meter lightning bolt was split down the middle.
The torn halves of the bolt, diverted like water around a stone, slammed into the ground on either side of Ace.
RUMBLE!
The earth groaned. Ancient pillars exploded into dust under the thermal shock. Scorched earth flew in every direction as the residual current hissed into the soil.
Seconds later, the light faded. Ace stood in the center of a massive, fanned-out crater. Not a single thread of his dark red windbreaker was scorched. He slowly withdrew his fist, shaking his wrist. A slight tingling sensation tickled his nerves, but it was immediately suppressed by his surging vitality.
"Passable power. Good speed. But the wind-up is too long," Ace said. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a resonant power that cut through the settling dust.
He knew Enel was listening.
"Let's skip the 'divine' greetings, Enel." Ace's gaze pierced the forest, locking onto the Giant Jack in the distance. His tone turned sharp, arrogant, and utterly cold. "Get down from your temple and face me. Or stay up there, and I'll tear your throne down along with the tree."
Snap.
The half-eaten apple in Enel's hand fell to the floor, bruising and breaking. His arrogant smirk was gone, replaced by a mask of pure, unadulterated shock.
Through his Mantra, he had expected the intruder's "voice" to vanish. Instead, the man's aura hadn't weakened by a single fraction. Worse, the Blue Sea dweller had used a power he didn't understand to shatter lightning with his bare hands.
"A lower lifeform... who shouldn't even be able to touch the clouds..."
Enel's face began to twitch. Dazzling, chaotic arcs of electricity erupted from his skin, charring the fine rugs of his shrine. He gritted his teeth, a white-hot rage at having his "divinity" insulted overwhelming his logic.
"YOU DARE THREATEN GOD?!"
Enel snatched his golden staff. His body transformed into a jagged bolt of blue lightning. With a thunderclap that shook the foundations of the island, he tore through the roof of the shrine, screaming toward Ace's location like a vengeful comet.
"YOU SUICIDAL VERMIN! I WILL BURN YOU TO ASHES!"
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